New Interactive Work of the Art Collective Karkatag

As part of the event Museums for 10: The Future of Museums – New Ideas, New Practices, an interactive work How To Dance 2 Next You by the Karkatag collective will be set up at the Museum of Yugoslavia from May 12. The work is formally reminiscent of dance tutorials, consisted of several videos, which will be successively presented in the coming months, and with which original music and choreography the visitors will be able to practice the steps on the so-called. densioke polygon, purposely designed for the Museum space. This is the third and, at the same time, the last segment of the art project called n(ex)t y(o)u/new revisionism, which Karkatag presents in the Museum of Yugoslavia.

The project was created as a direct reaction to the current exhibition of the Museum and is part of the practice of joint reflection on the Yugoslav heritage with the actors of the local art scene, which the Museum of Yugoslavia continuously affirms. Like the previous two works, realized within the project next y(o)u/new revisionism, this one also thematically relies on the celebrations of the Youth Day, held every May 25 in socialist Yugoslavia from 1957 to 1987, which, after several months of relay races, ended with a mass rally at the JNA stadium, with complex choreographies and a ceremonial handing over of a baton to Tito.

“By erasing the political aspect of this national holiday and ritual, translating it into the language of contemporary popular culture and media communication, the authors try to inherit the Yugoslav experience and this time alienate it from its original context, all with the aim of problematizing the same issues that are present in the previous two works: what are the adequate frameworks for interpretation and re-actualization of (Yugoslav) heritage in the modern moment; what is the role of art and museums in their production, as well as the attitude of the local and wider community towards that heritage, which is, according to artists, recycled and commodified by various mechanisms, and in that way often reduced to the status of empty slogans and phrases. In addition, the question of the relationship and role of these ‘recycling՚ practices in the context of current historical revisionism remains open,” claim the curators of the Museum of Yugoslavia.

All three works from the art project next y(o)u/new revisionism of the Karkatag collective will be presented as a whole within the next y(o)u pavilion, which will be opened in the presence of the artist, on Saturday, May 15, at 4 PM, as part of the European Museum Night.

The audience could meet with the members of the Karkatag collective during the event Museums for 10, (May 12-16), every day from noon to 2 PM.

The working hours of the Museum of Yugoslavia are from Wednesday to Sunday, from 10 AM to 6 PM. On May 15, when we mark the European Museum Night, the Museum will be open from noon to 10 PM, and entrance will be free.

About the Art Collective Karkatag

Karkatag (Belgrade) was formed in 2009 and it operates in the field of interactive art and new media, on the border with performative. Karkatag’s works are usually a kind of machines, usually larger in size, which, exhibited or put to use, give the audience an opportunity to become an active participant, performer, and the event generated through their work/use is an inseparable and essential part of the creation. So far, Karkatag has participated in numerous exhibitions, festivals, performances in Germany, England, Austria, Poland, Croatia, France, Montenegro, and in several cities in Serbia.

As part of the National Selection, Karkatag won the Gold Medal for initiating dialogue at the Prague Quadrennial in 2015. Also, in 2015, it won the award for the development of the British program Gone in 20 Minutes for new and brave outdoor art projects. In the same year, it received the prestigious The Oxford Samuel Beckett Theater Trust Award and production at the Barbican Center in London for 2016 in collaboration with the British group Collectif and then…